What is the true path to freedom in your business?
This is a subject and a topic I've been rolling around my brain for the past couple of years now, as I've recently just completed my latest book, The Path To Freedom.
For a long time, I thought the path to freedom was around achieving financial freedom. It was about having enough money to do what I want.
Eventually I started to realize that there's a part of that missing. Namely, having the time to actually spend that money or to actually enjoy the things doing I wanted to do. So then I started pursuing the fact of having free time.
I reached the point of having both the money and the time to do what I wanted in life. Thanks to systemising my business and building an A-player team that run it for me, I wasn't required for the any day-to-day operations.
Instead, I could step into the visionary role and spend my time building high-leverage relationships, thinking up cool ideas for my business, and guiding from way up above.
It wasn't until an experience being locked up in Bali immigration for a few days on an (unbeknownst to me) fake visa, combined with the current pandemic climate, that I realized that true freedom is something that exists far beyond financial freedom and far beyond time freedom.
In actual fact, if we're to gain this freedom first, we can experience that time and financial freedom faster than we ever thought possible.
You see, my honest belief is that we never have business problems. We have personal problems that get expressed through our business.
Hear me out for a second.
Look into your business right now. Look at where you might have some challenging staff members, or maybe you've got some challenges around your profitability, around cashflow, or leadership.
Everything in some way is a reflection back to a belief or a value that you carry or don't carry right now.
If you've got challenges with your staff, there could be some unresolved relationship issues that are showing up in that dynamic.
If you've got challenges around maintaining profitability, there could be some gremlins in the past, around your relationship with money.
What I've found to be true time and time again, and we at The Game Changers have worked with thousands of businesses around the world on, is this.
Once we address things going on in what we call the inner game, that is our mindset and belief system inside of us, things change in EVERY area of life. Business included.
Freedom exists inside of us
Freedom is reflected in our ability to show up authentically and be okay to speak our truth - without the need to get validation of others, without the concern that others will not like us or agree with us.
It comes from our ability to freely express ourselves.
I've noticed last few years that if I'd embraced that freedom at the beginning of my business journey, it would have been a much faster journey to where I am now.
If I'd have chosen to focus more on the way that I felt when someone didn't agree with me. Or been held back by the fear of someone judging me or ridicule me for one of my ideas.
If I'd started to work on my triggers around that, and become free to express myself not needing validation outside of me, not needing anyone else to agree with me, but for me to trust more who I am and who I was in that moment… I can guarantee I would have experienced the financial freedom, the time freedom a lot faster than what it got me to now through that self-expression.
How to start claiming your freedom in business
It all starts with one question: who am I?
Write it down. Journal on it for a few minutes. And just notice what comes up for you.
The second question to consider is: who do I pretend to be?
There's this element of who we believe that we are in our identity, our internal sense of self.
And then see the version of us that shows up in our relationship with our partner, as a father and mother to our children, as a sister or brother to our peers, as a son and daughter to our parents, as a leader to our staff… who do you pretend to be in those relationships?
Attaining true freedom
Freedom of fulfillment does not come from having more money. Freedom of fulfillment does not come from any more time. I've met people that have had both and been miserable.
Freedom fulfillment comes from being fully expressive. Being who you are and being okay to show up as you in any situation. Allowing others to have their beliefs, to have their presumptions and insights and even comments around who you are.
But it doesn't change who you are because you know that you're whole and complete and unfinished.
And you love who you are in that situation and your sense of worth and validation isn't required to be validated by those around you.
Now, I know this might sound a bit wishy-washy, a little bit esoteric… yet I'm sharing this with you from the last 18 years of experience in business alone. I'm 35 years old at the moment, and I've been in business for more than 18 years of that. I've learned a hell of a lot.
And my ability to lead my team, and my ability to bring a community together has all come down to this one thing I'm sharing with you today. Which is around my ability to be vulnerable, my ability to show up as all of me.
What I've started to realize in that process is the more I show up as me, those that don't like that, or those don't resonate with that were never true believers or true followers or true peers.
They were connected to a version of me. By expressing all of me, I give the people around me the permission to show up and express all of them as well. When this happens, relationships become deeper and more meaningful.
Want to find out more?
If you enjoyed this blog, please like, share and comment, and make sure you follow The Game Changers to stay up to date with the latest videos and content that we produce every single week.
And also please feel free to provide feedback around how this exercise works for you and the impact it has when you start to lift the burden of trying to be someone you're not.
If you haven't yet already make sure you look for and download a copy or buy a copy of my new book, The Path To Freedom.
Get your copy at this link:
Australia: https://bit.ly/ThePathToFreedomAUS
US and International: https://bit.ly/ThePathToFreedomUS
